Priscilla Manuel and Casandra Minchaca, fifth-graders from Pio Pico Elementary in Santa Ana, sift through the sand for trash Thursday during a beach-cleaning event organized by the Orange County Coastkeeper at Huntington State Beach.

Sunkist Elementary fifth-grader Diego Licea and sixth-grader Josue Moreno look for trash wedged in the rocks of Huntington State Beach, Orange County Coastkeeper invited students from inland Orange County to come clean the beach.

Sound

The gallery will resume inseconds

Students from inland Orange County sift for trash at Huntington State Beach on Thursday.

Sunkist Elementary students of Anaheim walk around rocks at Huntington State Beach looking for trash during a cleanup day organized by Orange County Coastkeepers.

Andrea Pascasio of Baden-Powell Elementary in Anaheim holds styrofoam bits that she found in the sand of Huntington State Beach. More than 1,300 Orange County students helped clean the beach on Thursday morning.

Orange County students sit in the sand to create an aerial art project, forming the words "unite for the ocean," to raise awareness on the diminished sea star populations.

More than 1,350 students from inland Orange County form the message, "Unite for the Ocean," on the sand.

Hilda Gomez looked out at her students standing on the sand Thursday near the water’s edge in Huntington Beach, all wearing white plastic gloves and ready to get to work.

“Look at all this sand,” yelled out the Handy Elementary School third-grade teacher. “Let’s find some trash!”

The students started scouring the sand as though they were on a treasure hunt.

“Styrofoam!” one student yelled out before tossing it in his reusable bag.

More than 1,350 students from inland Orange County spent hours picking up trash at Huntington State Beach for the 22nd annual Kids Ocean Day Adopt-A-Beach cleanup event.

It’s a chance to educate students, many of whom live in inland cities, about how trash and debris flow through waterways and into the ocean.

The students came by the busloads from Anaheim, Garden Grove, Orange, Santa Ana, Stanton and Westminster. The event is part of a series of Kids Adopt-A-Beach Cleanups at six beaches along the California coast.

Gomez said the students are always excited about spending the day at the beach.

“This is our sixth year doing this. It’s become a tradition for our third-graders to come and clean the beach,” she said. “They do it because they know how important it is. They know catch basins aren’t for trash, it’s for water. They know not to throw trash out of the windows because of the effects.”

Third-grader Zaira Magdaleno said she mostly found Styrofoam, but she also found other items such as bottles, straws, paper and rubber.

“It’s very fun, and I like taking care of the ocean because it’s our ocean, it’s our property,” she said.

Student Madelyn Rabadan knows the impact trash can have on wildlife.

“When (trash) is on the floor, the birds are going to eat it,” she said. “It’s bad for them, they can die from all the trash.”

Kids Ocean Day is organized by the California Coastal Commission, and Orange County Coastkeeper coordinates the event as part of World Oceans Day on June 8.

Students in upcoming weeks will learn how storm drain systems connect neighborhoods to the ocean.

Coastkeeper spokeswoman Dyana Pena said this year there were more students than in past years. In total, about 7,000 students have participated since Coastkeeper started hosting it eight years ago.

“You really expect them to get out here and just run to the water, but they are really focused,” she said.

Besides cleaning up the beach, the students posed for an aerial art project to spell out “unite for the ocean” to raise awareness on the diminished sea star populations because of a wasting disease.

The outbreak in recent years has resulted in the demise of hundreds of thousands of starfish along the Pacific coastline from Alaska to Mexico.

Laylan Connelly started as a journalist in 2002 after earning a degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. Through the years, she has covered several cities for The Orange County Register, starting as a beat reporter in Irvine before focusing on coastal cities such as Newport Beach, Dana Point and Laguna Beach. In 2007, she was selected for a prestigious Knight New Media fellowship focusing on digital media at UC Berkeley, where she learned skills to adapt to the ever-changing online landscape. Using a web-based approach, she turned her love for the ocean into a full-time gig as the paper’s beaches reporter. The unique beat allows her to delve into coastal culture by covering everything from the countless events dotting the 42 miles of coastline, to the business climate of the surf industry, to the fascinating wildlife that shows up on the shores. Most importantly, she takes pride in telling stories of the people who make the beaches so special, whether they are surfers using the ocean to heal, or the founders of major surf brands who helped spawn an entire culture, or people who tirelessly fight to keep the coast pristine and open for all to enjoy. She’s a world traveler who loves to explore the slopes during winter months or exotic surf spots around the globe. When she’s not working, or maybe while she's researching a story, you can find her longboarding at her favorite surf spots at San Onofre or Doheny.